


Runaway.

by SecondStarOnTheLeft



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-24
Updated: 2012-11-24
Packaged: 2017-11-19 11:05:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/572581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft/pseuds/SecondStarOnTheLeft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Truths are uncovered and promptly cast aside as unimportant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Runaway.

**Author's Note:**

> For the kink meme prompt:
> 
> Robb and Myrcella were married for some time before Myrcella's true parentage was revealed. They both tried to live with it. Myrcella ran away. Robb searches and finds her. 
> 
> "You left me and took our son with you."
> 
> "You stopped loving me... And I couldn't bear the way you looked, no, look at me because I still love you so, so much."

Robb startled awake when the door of his bedchamber was slammed back against the wall and Theon began shouting at him to get his fat lazy arse out of bed, but it took him a moment to dig his way out from the fort of pillows and blankets and furs he and Cella had buried themselves underneath last night-

"Where's Cella?" he demanded as soon as his head was free. "What the damned hells is wrong?!"

"Lady Stark has disappeared," Theon said shortly, his jaw tight - against all odds, he and Myrcella had grown close - and his cheeks pink. "And she's taken little Stark with her."

Robb's heart stopped for an instant.

 

* * *

 

"My lady, there is still time to return to Winterfell if we turn now-"

Myrcella ignored Ser Arys' protests, carefully tightened the bindings holding Brandon to her chest, and climbed back up into her saddle.

"The sooner we get to the coast, the sooner we can be on a ship bound for Casterly Rock," she said firmly, clicking her tongue and tapping her heels against Mouse's sides. "Now come along, ser - we have a ways to go yet, and little enough daylight."

"My lady-"

"No, Ser Arys!" she snapped. "Now come along!"

No, she couldn't stay at Winterfell, not now, not after... Not after the letters Stannis had sent, the letters  _Renly_ had sent. Robb had read that bloody letter and looked at her, really looked at her, long and hard, and then he hadn't looked at her properly since. He'd barely even been able to look at Brandon, because Brandon had a full head of bright golden-blonde curls and a face full of Lannister features around those sharp Tully eyes of his, because Brandon looked so much like her, was such a strong reminder of the terrible truth of what she was.

She couldn't stay at Winterfell and risk Robb's bannermen talking him into killing her and Brandon for her mother and Jaime's sins. She  _wouldn't._ They'd be safe at Casterly Rock - Grandfather would never allow any harm to come to them, not ever.

At least, Myrcella sincerely hoped he wouldn't. One never quite knew where Tywin Lannister was concerned.

 

* * *

 

"I have to go after them!" Robb shouted, pushing past everyone who tried to hold him back - and it seemed everyone was trying - on his way to the yard, where Theon was waiting with their horses saddled. "She is my wife, and she has my son! I am not leaving them to freeze to death in the wolfswood!"

"She's a Lannister bastard," someone muttered, and Robb didn't even check who it was (Harwin) before his fist slammed into his face. 

"She is your lady," Robb snarled, "the Lady of Winterfell, and you will accord her the concern and respect that is her due. I am going to find her and  _my son_ and I am going to bring them home. Are we  _clear?!"_

A path opened before him, and he swung up into the saddle without looking back.

He could feel their eyes on him far beyond when it should have been possible. He didn't care that they all felt he'd be better off without Myrcella, that they thought he should set her aside and disinherit Brandon at the earliest convenience because of who'd sired Myrcella. He didn't  _care -_ but apparently Myrcella thought he did, and she'd run off and taken Brandon with her, taken his boy, his son, and that she could possibly believe that he would allow them to come to harm made him sick to his stomach.

He whistled, and Grey Wind pelted on ahead, massive paws kicking up huge flurries of snow. Theon cursed as they rode in Grey Wind's wake, but Robb said nothing.

Myrcella would have wrapped up warm, but she didn't fully understand the North. She wouldn't have wrapped up warm  _enough,_ which meant Robb didn't have long to find her and Brandon.

 

* * *

 

"My lady, you must rest."

She hesitated for a moment before nodding in reluctant agreement. Brandon had been fussing for a time anyways, he was either in need of a change (she couldn't smell a thing, her nose was so blocked) or a feed, and either way they'd need to set up shelter against the icy wind that carried rushes of feathery snow with it.

"Set up camp, Ser Arys," she said tiredly, reigning Mouse in and riding meekly in her guard's wake. "Try to conceal it, ser? My husband will doubtless send out a party to search for Brandon, and I would rather we were not found."

 

* * *

 

"What if we're too late?"

Robb ignored Theon as best he could, but the light was fading faster than they were riding, and even if he  _did_ manage to find Cella and Brandon tonight he wouldn't be able to get them safely back to Winterfell - well, he might be, but he couldn't stake their lives on a  _might._

 _"_ I cant lose them, Theon," he said, leaning closer over his horse's neck and peering for the great dark smudge of Grey Wind against the snow. "I won't lose them."

"If we're too late," Theon said firmly, "you'll be expected to marry again. There might be no escaping Alys flaming Karstark now."

"If we're too late," Robb said, just as firm and infinitely more bleak, "Winterfell will eventually pass to Bran."

 

* * *

 

Myrcella rubbed at Brandon's back under their cocoon of furs and cloaks and blankets, doing her best to keep him warm. The fire was doing little to stave off the bitter cold, and suddenly she found herself terrified that something might happen her son.

 _Please don't take him from me_ she begged whatever gods might be listening,  _he will be all I have of Robb, please don't take him from me._

 _"_ My lady?" Ser Arys said gently. "I have the tent set up, if you wish to retire."

She smiled past chattering teeth and ducked greatfully into the relative warmth of the tent - at least it cut the wind, she supposed, as she pulled yet more furs over herself and Brandon and settled down to try and sleep.

 

* * *

"Robb, we'll be frozen to death if we stay out here much longer, never mind them," Theon called as Robb slid down into the snow at Grey Wind's side as the wolf sniffed frantically at the snow, whining pitifully and glancing about with maddened eyes as he tried to find Myrcella and Brandon's trail again. "We should-"

"Just a bit longer," Robb pleaded, near as frantic as Grey Wind, and climbed back into the saddle. "Please, Theon, I can't abandon them out here with only Arys bloody Oakheart to protect them, you know I can't."

"Well, I wish your damned wolf'd hurry up and-"

Grey Wind bolted, and Robb and Theon turned their horses and kicked them into a gallop, following his howls as much as the shadow of him on the snow.

 

* * *

 

"Wolves," Myrcella gasped in horror, bolting upright and kissing Brandon's hair when he began to cry. "Ssh, my love, ssh now, Mama will keep you safe."

She knew she couldn't, not with wolves about, but she had to stop herself from crying with fear because the tears would only freeze to her eyelashes and cheeks and that would do no-one any good at all-

The tentflap was torn open, and Theon stuck his head in, grinning at her in that fondly mocking way of his.

"Stupid bastard," he teased, holding out a hand. She could hear Robb roaring at Ser Arys, but there was a bigger fire and Grey Wind was there, already sniffing around her and Brandon, and it was  _warm,_ and nothing else seemed to matter for the moment.

 

* * *

 

"You left me and took our son with you."

She looked up at him, eyes wide and frightened in her lovely, lovely face, and he felt sick. She truly did believe that he would allow harm to come to her, to Brandon.

He sighed and sat down beside her.

"Cella," he said softly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her in against his side. "Why would you leave me? Why would you run away?"

"You stopped loving me-"

"How could you think that?" he asked, genuinely astonished. "Cella-"

"And I couldn't bear the way you looked, no, _look_ at me because I still love you so, so much."

"And I you!" he exclaimed, catching her chin and turning her face to his. "Myrcella, I will  _always_ love you, you foolish woman."

"I am not the woman you married," she said, voice thick with tears, and he leaned his brow against hers, forcing her to meet his eyes.

"Your sire does not change who you are," he said firmly. "Now, in the morning, you will come home, and we will weather this storm."

"Robb-"

"Your brother has my father held prisoner," he said. "The Riverlands are overrun, and I will be away for a time, but you and Brandon will hold Winterfell until I come home, will you not-"

"Robb, your bannermen will never accept Brandon because of me," Myrcella said miserably.

Robb kissed her, firm and brooking no argument.

"They will accept you because I say they must, both of you," he insisted. "And when I return home with Father and my sisters, I'll kill any man who doesn't."

 

* * *

 

Robb doesn't return, but Theon does.

Myrcella and Brandon are already halfways to White Harbour when he comes.

They are only just through the doors when she is told of her husband's fate at his uncle's wedding.

The Lannisters retake Winterfell and think they will control little Brandon Stark with his Lannister hair and face.

Myrcella clutches her marriage cloak close and vows that they never, ever will, not so long as there is breath in her lungs. Not after what they did to Brandon's father and grandfather.

Winter comes, and the Lannisters find out just how clear a memory the North has. 

Myrcella mourns her family, but not her blood.


End file.
